Raw tea leaves, just as they are plucked from the bushes, and unmanufactured, are exposed for sale in the markets of China. They are aold at from three farthings to five farthings a pound ; and as it takes about 4 pounds of raw leaves to mako 1 pound of tea, it follows that the price paid is at the rate of 3d. to 5d. a pound ; but to this must be added tho expense of mani pulation. In this manner the inhabitants of largo towns in China, who have no tea farms of their own, can buy tbe raw leaves in the market, anti manufacture the beverage for themselves and in their own way.
The tea of Mongolia is prepared by simply firing the leaves, so soon as plucked, seven or eight times in an iron pan.
The wealthy Japanese continue the ancient mode of grinding the leaves t,o powder ; and, after in fusion in a cup, it is whipped with a split bamboo or denticulated instrument till it creams, when they drink both the infusion and powder, as coffee is used in many parts of Asia.
Analysis of Tea.—The infusion made from tea contains gum, glucose or saccharine matter, a large-quantity of tannin, and a peculiar nitrogen ized principle called theine ; this is identical with caffeine, and upon its presence many of the pro perties of tea depend. The amount of gum and tannin contained in a given sample of tea afford data by which its quality may to some extent be determined. Tea by many is looked on 'more a3 a luxury than of use to the human system ; but Liebig, without entering minutely into the med ical action of c,affeine, theine, etc., says it will surely appear a most striking fact, even if we were to deny its influence on the process of secretion, that the substance, with the addition of oxygen and the elements of water, can yield taurine, the nitrogenized compound peculiar t,o bile.
Properties of Tea.—Lo Yu, a learned Chinese, who lived in the dynasty of Tang, A.D. 618 to 906, gives the following account of the qualities and effects of the infusion of the leaves of the tea plant : —1It tempers the spirit and luarmonizes the mind; dispels lassitude and relieves fatigue ; awakens thought and prevents drowsiness ; lightens or refreshes the body and clears the perceptive faculties.' In Pereira's Materia Medica, we find the following reuaarks relating to the properties of tea :-1Its astringency is proved by its chemical properties. Another quality possessed especially by green tea, is that of diminishing the tendency to sleep. Tea appears to possess a sedative in fluence with regard to the vascular system. Strong green tea taken in large quantities, is capable,. in some constitutions, of producing a most distressing feeling, and of operating as a narcotic.' Brick tea in Hankow is made of two sizes.
The largo green brick tea is made by the Russian factors at Ilawning, and at Tsung-yang in Hu-peh, and is sent through the Kalgan gate of the Great Wall. The small brick tea is much finer than the large, and the black brick tea is made in tho name moulds. These teas go to the Siberians, the Buriat, the Tungus, and Kirghiz tribes, as well as the Mongols The bricks arc in a cormenient form for barter. They are by no means. an in ferior tea, and it is actually eaten, the leaveS being chopped up with salt and butter or koumiss. The finer sorts are friable masses, and are packed in papers ; the coarser are sewn up in sheep skin. In this form' it is an article of commerce throughout Central and Northern Asia and the Himalayan provinces ; and is consumed by Mon gols, Tartars, and Tibetans, churned with milk, salt, butter, and boiling water, more LIB a soup than as tea proper. Certain quantities are forced upon the acceptance of the western tributaries of the Chinese empire in payment for the sup port of troops, etc.; and is hence, from its con venient size and -form, brought into circulation as a currency over an area greater than that of Europe.
Green brick tea is made at Tung-shan in Ho-nan province from leaves which have fallen to the ground. These are put into wicker baskets, tvhich are placed over slow fires, in iron pans filled to the brim with water which is kept boiling, and the ascending Amu' permeates the mixed leaves in the basket. The contents are then placed in moulds, and eventually pressed with heavy weights. The process takes a month. Black brick tea is prepared in the same manner in three weeks. It is made at Sung-yang and Yang-lou-tung in Hu-peh province. :---Jameson s Ed. Jo., 1825, p. 378 ; Baron F. Von Mueller, Select Plants ; Ball, Cultivation and Manu facture of Tea ; Dr. Cooke, Food ; Sir John Davis, China ; Fortune, Tea Districts ; Fortune, Wander ings in China ; Williams' Middle Kingdom ; Bonynge's Anierica ; Cat. Exh., 1862 ; Smith, Mat. Med. China ; Archdeacon Gray, China, ii. pp. 204-214 ; L. Lyod and Cheshire s Market Reports ; Ewart Macaughy and Co.'s Circulars ; Wade, pp. 141, 142 ; Universal Review ; Hassall's Food and its Adulterations .11.11Culloch's Commercial Dic tionary ; London Market Reviews and Commercial Circulars ; Prize Essays on Tea Cultivation, published in the Journal of the Agri - Horti cultural Society of India, iii. part 2, 1872 ; J. F. 117. Watson on the Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea ; The Tea Cyclopwdia—Articles on Tea Statistics, compiled by the Editor. of the Indian Tea Gazette, and Blights front Drawings by S. E. Peal, 1882; The Tea Industry in Intha, by Samuel Bandon, author of Tea in India, 1882.